Busy through Rugeley and Armitage

We got away at eight this morning, and were at Rugeley by nine on a fine spring morning; it had been quite frosty overnight, and the wind was still very chilly, but the sun more than made up for it. We had a good shopping session, restocking with groceries mainly. As usual, Sheila then boated on whilst I stowed the stuff away and made a cup of coffee for us both.

I was kneeling on the galley floor, sorting out one of the lower cupboards when a scary grinding noise came up from under at me. Sheila had had to pull over to let a boat come past the other way, and we'd run aground. We soon slid off again, but it was quite exciting whilst it lasted.

I'm just glad I haven't been able to watch any of this stuff on the telly about the Titanic.

/sweat

With the supplies duly stowed, I took the helm back for the two hour run to Kings Bromley, where we've stopped for the night, and quite possibly tomorrow, looking at the forecast. We can do Alrewas in a day from here, and as long as we're there by Wednesday afternoon, we'll be fine.

The rest of the trip was marked by encounters with stuff coming the other way. It's a section of canal that gets quite narrow, of course, particularly through Armitage "tunnel" and at sundry bridges before and after there. Sheila spent most of the time on the bow, using the PMR radio to advise of approaching craft.

I've talked before about the wonders of Spode House and Hawkesyard Priory, so won't repeat myself here, but we noticed that there are many fewer boats on the long term moorings there these days. Perhaps BW is reducing those, a move which would make sense in view of all the extra marina berths now available around here.

The only really tricky bit was at Handsacre, by The Crown bridge, where I held back to let one boat through, and then had an "after you, no, after you" session with an ex-OwnerShips boat. I was afraid for a moment that we were going to run the cabin handrail onto the bridge arch, but I managed to get the bow swinging enough to avoid it.

Bow thruster? who needs a bow thruster?

/nobigdeal

It's been a quiet afternoon; the sky has clouded over, and there's wind and rain forecast for overnight and tomorrow, so once this is published I'll get out there and batten everything down.